Sometimes nothing else will do. Bread, toasted, buttered, cheese added. Warm, chewy, crusty, salty, sweet, nutty, creamy. The current object of my bread adoration is 8 Grain 3 Seed bread made by Rock Hill Bakehouse in Gansevoort, New York, up near Saratoga Springs. I order it through Lewis Waite, who makes deliveries to my CSA, Farm Spot, but I believe their breads are also sold elsewhere in New York City. It is made with so many things – whole wheat, millet, cracked barley and rye, poppy seeds, flax seeds, buckwheat and brown rice flours and more…reading the ingredient list makes it sound like a very hearty and rustic bread. And it is, but at the same time it is also very refined, with a delicate texture and many, many flavors going on – rye, sourdough, faint sweetness, nuttiness.

Toasted, it takes on a slight bit of crunch. Butter sinks in. Cheese sits on top. Today, thick little slabs of jarlsberg, with a waxy red rind and a yellow glow. But, more often than not it’s thinly sliced cheddar. Happy day.